The 15 Deadliest Plane Crashes Since 1982

There is no shortage of human achievements to that are both inspiring and have shaped the world we live in today. We created electronic devices that have saved lives and made our lives easier. We domesticated fire so that we could cook food, stay warm and see in the dark. Humans created writing as a way to express thoughts and ideas as well as to record history.

Mankind created photography to capture images in a way that words simply couldn’t. We developed theories as to origins of evolution and we have developed vaccines to combat the seemingly hidden forces that would see us sick. Man created language to communicate and developed and mastered agriculture and animal domestication so that societies could form and humans could shift from hunter-gatherers. However, of all the things that mankind has strived towards and created, one out greatest accomplishments was when we learned how to fly.

Mankind has always had a fascination with flight and for hundreds of years has tried to accomplish what then only birds and insects could do. But through innovation, dedication and a lot of trial and error, man seemed to accomplish the impossible and did that with the advent of the airplane.

The airplane is responsible for making a big world smaller and more accessible. It single-handedly sped up travel time, aiding in international business and creating a more connected and globalized world. The airplane has changed the lives of people by allow goods to be transported internationally at a higher speed, allowed politics to truly become global and gave people the opportunity to meet one another, regardless of where on the planet they found themselves.

The invention of the airplane created an entirely new industry, one that has created more than 58 millions jobs across the globe with implications ranging from transport to military and even space exploration. However, like any boundary pushing invention (no pun intended), there are risks, and when specifically referring to airplanes and flight, that risk is often around 40,000 feet in the air, and it doesn’t take much imagination to determine what can go wrong with that.

Many people are scared of flying, and that is likely in part to the fact that planes travel at such vertical extremes that it could potentially make the bravest soul feel a little hesitant, although, from a statistical point of view, flying is one of the safest modes of transport. The odds of a plane crashing are 1 in every 1.2 million flights and the odds of a person dying as a result of a plane crash are 1 in 11 million.

When you weigh those figures against the automobile, which boasts a likelihood of fatality at one in 5,000, it tends to put people’s minds at ease. Especially when you consider that even if you were on that 1 in 1.2 million flights, you still have a 95.7 percent chance of survival. And while the odds are good (great, some might argue), the fact remains that accidents happen, and although unlikely, when an accident involves an airplane, it is usually devastating.

While not intended to scare anyone from flying, rather to educate, we have traversed that annals of history and compiled a list of the 15 deadliest plane crashes since 1982, again, not to frighten a would-be traveller, but rather as a humbling reminder that life is, in spite of all our advancements, precious.

1. Korean Flight 801

Normally, Korean Air Flight 801 was flown by an Airbus A300, however, because Korean Air scheduled flights to transport athletes to the South Pacific Games in American Samoa, the airline choose to fly the route with a 12-year-old Boeing 747-300 delivered to Korean Air on December 12, 1984.

Although the plane was different, everything was going according to plan on August 6, 1997, as Korean Air Flight 801 flew out of Seoul-Kimpo International Airport (now known as Gimpo Airport) to its destination of Antonio B. Won Pat International Airport, in the United States territory of Guam. Upon its approach to the airport, the plane crash into Nimitz Hill in Asan.

Investigations revealed that the cause of the crash was the result of insufficient pilot training/pilot error, and of the 237 passengers and 17 crew, there were only 25 survivors - they were only 3 miles from the runway.